Dear Yuletide Personage
Sep. 30th, 2016 03:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
melmilloHello, dear writer! Thank you for being brave enough to write for me this year! I hope that your fall and winter months will be pleasant for you, and that writing a story for me will be fun and not make you tear your hair out. I try very hard not to be a fussy Yuletide recipient!
I do not have much of a text-blogging presence in fandom namespace any longer, but my AO3 name is melmillo, and I quietly tumblr under the name smallmonday.
Below is some basic blab about my reading preferences, and reposts of my official requests plus some specific thoughts on each request/fandom.
General thoughts:
--If you're writing something shippy or involving a romantic/sexual relationship, actual sex scenes are great but absolutely not required! If your writing preference is for UST or fade-to-black then please don't make yourself go bonkers trying to churn out something explicit--I would much rather you not make yourself miserable trying to write something that's beyond your comfort level. Unless otherwise specified in a request itself, consent of all levels, dub-con, and non-con are all fine. (Given the choice between dub- or non-con my preference leans more toward the former, but non-con is also okay and won't squick me.)
--I have no real preferences in terms of POV or tense, as long as it's consistent and clear. First-, second-, and third-person POVs are all fine.
--I'm okay with stories that deal with unpleasant or depressing themes, or don't have 100% happy endings. However, I'd appreciate it if you'd steer away from all-out wallowing in complete darkness or bleakness, or ending a story with everyone miserable and/or dead. Or, to put it another way--I'm totally fine with a dark fic, but I'm not fine with a grimdark fic.
--I tried to discuss and offer a few thoughts about each of the canons/chracters I requested below, and some of them came out longer than others. This doesn't mean that I'm more interested in those fandoms--it just means that I found them easier to ramble about. I truly love all of these canons and would be thrilled to receive a story for any of them!
--Please feel free to leave an anon comment, or contact me via the mods if you want to suss out my feelings about a kink or a potential squicks! That's easier for me than trying to trying to give you a laundry list in this letter, because that would just devolve into me going "I'm fine with kink X, and usually I don't care for kink Y but I DO like it when it's framed in this specific way, and sometimes Z squicks me but it's usually because of these particular circumstances...." Since two of the canons I'm requesting have a darker edge, though, I will say that I'm fine with things like uneven power dynamics, mentions of mistreatment/captivity/torture, creepy imagery, gore that isn't extreme, etc.
--Remember, optional details are optional! I want this to be a good Yuletide for you, and that means writing something you're excited about. If you have a great idea that fits the fandom/characters I've asked for but isn't mentioned in my babble, go for it!
Fandom: The Wolf of Winter
Characters: Varis, Shalindra
What it is and where to find it: A single-volume fantasy novel by Paula Volsky, centered on a Russian-esque realm with a tradition of dangerous and forbidden necromantic magic. Out of print, alas, but many used copies are available.
Official request and further thoughts:
I'm requesting both Varis and Shalindra as characters, but I don't need them both to appear on-screen or in POV--what I'm really just dying to get is some kind of fic that gives me another taste of their interactions with and impact on each other. Their time together is one of the most interesting parts of the book for me, but necessity of pacing means that the weeks of time Shalindra spends as Varis's hostage/'guest' gets swept past rather quickly, so a fic expanding on that time period is one thing I'd love to see. A couple of sentences, for examples, mention that once Shalindra is being kept in better conditions she and Varis usually dine together, so what did that look like? What did they talk about? (Dinner scenes that are tense or emotionally charged in some way are one of my favorite things to read, so this is one of those skimmed-over details that I desperately wish we had an actual example of in the book!) I have to admit I'm also darkly tempted by the thought of an AU where the proposed marriage went through for whatever reason--how in the world would both of them have navigated that relationship?--or where Shalindra didn't quite have the strength to ask Varis to take her out of the crypt, and gave in to the unspoken offer of further instruction in necromancy.
Varis's POV scene during some point of Shalindra's captivity could be really interesting, too. We only get a few scenes from his perspective in the latter part of the novel, but the couple of times we do his thoughts about Shalindra are very striking--particularly that scene were he's in a post-necromancy waking nightmare and thinks of her face and her voice as a point of light and sanity in the madness. Something about his first impressions of her once she's been captured, maybe, or his thoughts after the crypt scene?
Or I'd love to see some kind of Shalindra fic set post-canon, as the conclusion is a pretty interesting happy-yet-not ending--Shalindra's been too changed to celebrate her brother's victory and Varis's defeat the way she once would have, and certain elements of her world are already starting to feel grating, unsatisfying, or dull to her. So I always wonder: what is she going to do from now on? Is she truly going to manage to resist the lure of necromancy for the rest of her life? Or would she take advantage of her new position and resources--a titled noble, with time and money and the research skills that come from her years as an enforced scholar at Fruce--and begin exploring the forbidden art again?
Given the situation Varis is in at the book's conclusion (spifflicated in that shack in the woods and so ragged and dishelved that the few patrols who've come across him haven't recognized him), it's very unlikely that Shalindra will encounter him again after the book's end--but if she did turn back to necromancy and let a sufficient number of years pass, might she able to summon his ghost? Would she try to do it, if only to assuage her own curiosity about him and why he'd let her go? I don't know how lucid a ghost!Varis would be--I can't remember if we see any ghosts of spifflicates in the book--but the two of them having one last conversation and their previous power dynamic of captor/captive being so completely reversed into necromancer/ghost is an idea I can't get out of my brain.
If I've got my dates right I would have read The Wolf of Winter when I was about 11 or 12, and it left a huge number of chilly skeletal bone-prints all over my impressionable young mind. I think it was one of the first'grown-up' fantasy novels I read that wasn't drawing solely on Standard Medieval Western Europe for its setting, and also probably the first one that centered so heavily on necromantic magic as a plot element. And it was peppered with certain narrative devices and tropes that I'd later come to love wholeheartedly: a cold but somewhat sympathetic protagonist growing into an antagonist; stretches of affiability/understanding between the protagonist and the antagonist even if they're working at cross-purposes; a good character being truly, truly tempted by something the antagonist offers them. Looking back at it these days it has its flaws, but it's a book that's always stuck with me and is a frequent reread--I still have the original paperback copy that I first read ages ago.
And Shalindra and Varis and their interaction left such an impression that I always find it surprising that their actual time together comes so late in the book, and is barely more than 100 pages of content. The impact the two of them have on each other feels so strongly drawn in that small amount of space! In spite of their antagonism they have points of similarity and common aspects in their histories/personalities/experiences that they've never found echoed in another person. You understand why Shalindra is uneasily drawn to Varis and finds him easy to talk to about personal and painful things even though she knows better; why Varis, who goes through the entire book manipulating everyone with an ice-cool lack of emotion, feels an unspoken--affinity? affection?--for Shalindra, enough to let her go at the end even though it dooms him. And you understand why the memory of her and that moment can still break through his madness at the end, just a little, and why Shalindra feels somehow bereft once he's gone. It's a short but potent portrayal of two semi-kindred spirits getting pulled into each other's orbit for a little bit before fate and their own actions yank them apart again, and I wish there'd been just a tiny bit more of it.
So, yes, any story that draws on this stuff that I can't stop blabbing about would make me a happy reader. :D
Fandom: Critical Role
Characters: Anna Ripley
What it is and where to find it: A currently ongoing web video series where, as the intro says, a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors get together and play Dungeons and Dragons. Previous episodes can be found at Geek and Sundry here; new episodes stream on Thursdays at 7 PM PST on Geek and Sundry's Twitch channel and end whenever the DM calls the session, and are posted for later viewing on the Geek and Sundry site on Monday.
Official request and further thoughts:
The thing I most want from a fic about Doctor Anna Ripley is MORE. I find her fascinating to a degree totally disproportionate to her amount of screentime, and it's left me itching for something to fill in some of the gaps about her. How the hell did she end up where she is and who she is? Where and how did she get her scientific and mechanical knowledge? How did she get recruited by the Briarwoods? What were her big plans after she escaped from Whitestone? We know she's been selling guns and designs, but why was she gathering Vestiges--to force a confrontation with VM, or just for her own power and protection, or for some other reason? How did her deal with Orthax go down? How did she meet up with Kynan and get him on her side? We know from ep. 69 that she both taught him things and broke his mind in some terrible ways, so exploring that could make for an excellently creepy fic. What about those other names on her gun--who were they, and why did she think they deserved vengeance? What about the two barrels she'd cleared off before VM found her? Or, for a situation with some potential humor, what was *her* interaction with Victor like? :D
I am also down for almost ANY fic scenario that results in more Ripley and Percy interaction. Their back-and-forth during episode 33 was one of the best parts of the episode for me--the moment where Percy drops his disguise and Ripley looks afraid but also can't help smiling with delight? That bit where Percy nonchalantly says "I nearly killed you in Stillbend," and she replies "Hmm, I didn't know that was you," with mild interest but no other reaction? SO GOOD.I kind of hated that in episode 68 events happened so quickly that there wasn't really a good chance for another verbal duel between them. So any kind of story where they get to interact just a little bit more--a missing scene during the castle exploration in 33, or a slight AU where she didn't manage to escape from VM/Whitestone when she did, or one where VM and Ripley's group have to temporarily and uncomfortably team up as Vestige-bearers--would be a treat for me. Or, since they were technically dead during they same amount of time, did they have a moment where they passed each other by in the afterlife and exchanged truly final words? It'd be neat to see what response Ripley'd give to Percy's "I forgive you".
I...also would not be at all averse to some dark Ripley/Percy if you feel like wandering down that dangerous and thorny path! Every interaction they had was so charged and tense with chilly anger (on Percy's side) and smugness and fascination (on Ripley's) that I kept thinking "wow, these two would have some incredible hatesex." We know she tortured him in undescribed ways pre-game, but some kind of encounter set during the current game time, when they're on more of an equal footing, would be excellent as well--it'd probably have to be slightly AU'd at least to fit into the canon, but as in the above paragraph, I am totally down with a canon-divergent AU of some sort to facilitate it.
I received a lovely Percy fic last year, so given the recent events in the canon I suppose it's twistedly appropriate that I ask for fic about his dark mirror/rival this year. :D Gosh, I feel weird and almost embarrassed talking about how fascinating I find Ripley as a character--she only appeared in a couple of episodes! A handful of hours in +200 hours of content! But I just love the idea of a woman in a standard-ish fantasy world who's spent her life working her way into becoming a totally amoral scientist/inventor and whose guiding qualities seem to be curiosity and ruthless pragmatism. Young man you tortured invents a nifty weapon? Gather reports about him and try to figure out how to create one of your own. Blow your arm off in the process? Build yourself a new one. Same young man casts out his demon? Make a deal with it yourself. She has absolutely zero interest in the concerns of those around her, whether it's her employers' necromantic shenanigans or DRAGONS EVERYWHERE; she just wants to put her mind to something interesting, whether that's work-for-hire or her own research pursuits. I love that she dresses like a sensible 19th century highwayman. I love that she's smart and successful enough to make it to her mid-forties (cool female villains who are past the age of thirty, yesss) without being taken out by an experiment gone wrong or someone she'd crossed.
And since Percy is one of my faves, I suppose it only makes sense that Ripley got her claw-hand into my brain as well, as their characters have so many of the same hooks: the cleverness, the trickiness, the overconfidence, the need to keep pushing and pushing at the boundaries of their knowledge and what they can create--with the difference being that while Percy still has a grip on morality (skewed though his might be at times) and a wariness/guilt over how what he creates will affect the world, Ripley has neither. That similarity and difference, and the fact that they both recognize it and let it inform their reactions to each other is such catnip for me. I love that Percy constantly criticizes Ripley as being dull as tasteless, yet also says she's the one person he really, truly fears; I love that Ripley recognizes how Percy's guilt over what he's done and created is one of his most vulnerable points, and how absolutely crucial he is to VM's successes (their 'precious white-haired boy', as she called him).
And I love her unsettling fascination with Percy and his work--that he interests her so much that while she's sensible enough to be unsettled when he confronts her in Whitestone, she's also so pleased to see him that she can't help but smile and laugh in delight. She overheard everything he said did for WEEKS with that spell on that gun of hers. CREEPY. AWESOME. (Does that mean she overheard at least a part of things in the Raven Queen's temple? Aaaaaaah!)
Fandom: Steak to the Heart
Characters: Trevor, Olive
What it is and where to find it: A two-minute senior project animated short for the DigiPen Institute of Technology, on Youtube here. You can see some art, poses, concept sketching, etc. here on the tumblr of one of the animators.
Official request and further thoughts:
I don't have very specific requests in mind here--just more of Trevor and Olive and fun paranormal fluff with a cozy atmosphere. With the material we get in the short there's plenty of unexplored setup and followup to consider that could turn into a cute story. How did these two meet? Was it on their own? If so, who did the asking out? Did friends set them up? (What are their friends like?) Did they hook up through a dating service/website? (What are *those* like in this world, if it has them?) Where do they go and what do they do after they leave the restaurant? What's their second date like? In one piece of concept art we see Trevor with a guitar--would he try to write a song for Olive? Would she howl along?
It could also be fun to explore the setting in world-building way! The restaurant is clearly okay with werewolf and vampire patrons, so is this some special restaurant for non-humans, or do they live in a world/land with no humans, or do humans and non-humans live together? Olive is a humanoid wolf in this, but is that her form all the time, or does she go normal woman --> wolf-woman --> wolf --> normal again? What kind of traditional strengths and weaknesses (sunlight, silver, garlic, aconite, mirrors, etc.) do Trevor and Olive have, and how does that effect their dating life?
This is my repeat request this year! Because I still love the source, of course, and because my other requests are for potentially lengthy and dark-ish canons while this is a just a quick little piece of supernatural sweetness.
What I said about it last year was:
"It's just such a sweet snippet of story, with so much creativity in the characters and their movements and designs. I loved Trevor's shyness and freckles and sneakers and misbehaving coat-wings, I loved Olive's eagerness and her jewelry and her cute purple knee socks and her over-excited tail, and I loved how much they clearly liked each other and wanted to make a good impression. Any fic that leaves me with the same fluffy feeling as the source will be a win in my book."
That all still holds true! Again, I feel weird talking about how much I love this thing since it's just about two minutes of content, but I can't help it. On days when I feel down or blah about life I often find myself punching up this short on Youtube so I can watch it for the thousandth time and smile sappily at these two awkward darlings and their fidgets and shuffling and desperate attempts to look good for each other, culminating in that sweet moment where they can let the polite masks drop and just start happily gnawing on their steaks, and then swan out arm in arm into the night leaving a somewhat bloodstained tablecloth behind them. It's cute and silly and it just does my heart so much good.
Thank you again, dear writer, and I hope you have a lovely holiday season!
I do not have much of a text-blogging presence in fandom namespace any longer, but my AO3 name is melmillo, and I quietly tumblr under the name smallmonday.
Below is some basic blab about my reading preferences, and reposts of my official requests plus some specific thoughts on each request/fandom.
General thoughts:
--If you're writing something shippy or involving a romantic/sexual relationship, actual sex scenes are great but absolutely not required! If your writing preference is for UST or fade-to-black then please don't make yourself go bonkers trying to churn out something explicit--I would much rather you not make yourself miserable trying to write something that's beyond your comfort level. Unless otherwise specified in a request itself, consent of all levels, dub-con, and non-con are all fine. (Given the choice between dub- or non-con my preference leans more toward the former, but non-con is also okay and won't squick me.)
--I have no real preferences in terms of POV or tense, as long as it's consistent and clear. First-, second-, and third-person POVs are all fine.
--I'm okay with stories that deal with unpleasant or depressing themes, or don't have 100% happy endings. However, I'd appreciate it if you'd steer away from all-out wallowing in complete darkness or bleakness, or ending a story with everyone miserable and/or dead. Or, to put it another way--I'm totally fine with a dark fic, but I'm not fine with a grimdark fic.
--I tried to discuss and offer a few thoughts about each of the canons/chracters I requested below, and some of them came out longer than others. This doesn't mean that I'm more interested in those fandoms--it just means that I found them easier to ramble about. I truly love all of these canons and would be thrilled to receive a story for any of them!
--Please feel free to leave an anon comment, or contact me via the mods if you want to suss out my feelings about a kink or a potential squicks! That's easier for me than trying to trying to give you a laundry list in this letter, because that would just devolve into me going "I'm fine with kink X, and usually I don't care for kink Y but I DO like it when it's framed in this specific way, and sometimes Z squicks me but it's usually because of these particular circumstances...." Since two of the canons I'm requesting have a darker edge, though, I will say that I'm fine with things like uneven power dynamics, mentions of mistreatment/captivity/torture, creepy imagery, gore that isn't extreme, etc.
--Remember, optional details are optional! I want this to be a good Yuletide for you, and that means writing something you're excited about. If you have a great idea that fits the fandom/characters I've asked for but isn't mentioned in my babble, go for it!
Fandom: The Wolf of Winter
Characters: Varis, Shalindra
What it is and where to find it: A single-volume fantasy novel by Paula Volsky, centered on a Russian-esque realm with a tradition of dangerous and forbidden necromantic magic. Out of print, alas, but many used copies are available.
Official request and further thoughts:
I'm requesting both Varis and Shalindra as characters, but I don't need them both to appear on-screen or in POV--what I'm really just dying to get is some kind of fic that gives me another taste of their interactions with and impact on each other. Their time together is one of the most interesting parts of the book for me, but necessity of pacing means that the weeks of time Shalindra spends as Varis's hostage/'guest' gets swept past rather quickly, so a fic expanding on that time period is one thing I'd love to see. A couple of sentences, for examples, mention that once Shalindra is being kept in better conditions she and Varis usually dine together, so what did that look like? What did they talk about? (Dinner scenes that are tense or emotionally charged in some way are one of my favorite things to read, so this is one of those skimmed-over details that I desperately wish we had an actual example of in the book!) I have to admit I'm also darkly tempted by the thought of an AU where the proposed marriage went through for whatever reason--how in the world would both of them have navigated that relationship?--or where Shalindra didn't quite have the strength to ask Varis to take her out of the crypt, and gave in to the unspoken offer of further instruction in necromancy.
Varis's POV scene during some point of Shalindra's captivity could be really interesting, too. We only get a few scenes from his perspective in the latter part of the novel, but the couple of times we do his thoughts about Shalindra are very striking--particularly that scene were he's in a post-necromancy waking nightmare and thinks of her face and her voice as a point of light and sanity in the madness. Something about his first impressions of her once she's been captured, maybe, or his thoughts after the crypt scene?
Or I'd love to see some kind of Shalindra fic set post-canon, as the conclusion is a pretty interesting happy-yet-not ending--Shalindra's been too changed to celebrate her brother's victory and Varis's defeat the way she once would have, and certain elements of her world are already starting to feel grating, unsatisfying, or dull to her. So I always wonder: what is she going to do from now on? Is she truly going to manage to resist the lure of necromancy for the rest of her life? Or would she take advantage of her new position and resources--a titled noble, with time and money and the research skills that come from her years as an enforced scholar at Fruce--and begin exploring the forbidden art again?
Given the situation Varis is in at the book's conclusion (spifflicated in that shack in the woods and so ragged and dishelved that the few patrols who've come across him haven't recognized him), it's very unlikely that Shalindra will encounter him again after the book's end--but if she did turn back to necromancy and let a sufficient number of years pass, might she able to summon his ghost? Would she try to do it, if only to assuage her own curiosity about him and why he'd let her go? I don't know how lucid a ghost!Varis would be--I can't remember if we see any ghosts of spifflicates in the book--but the two of them having one last conversation and their previous power dynamic of captor/captive being so completely reversed into necromancer/ghost is an idea I can't get out of my brain.
If I've got my dates right I would have read The Wolf of Winter when I was about 11 or 12, and it left a huge number of chilly skeletal bone-prints all over my impressionable young mind. I think it was one of the first'grown-up' fantasy novels I read that wasn't drawing solely on Standard Medieval Western Europe for its setting, and also probably the first one that centered so heavily on necromantic magic as a plot element. And it was peppered with certain narrative devices and tropes that I'd later come to love wholeheartedly: a cold but somewhat sympathetic protagonist growing into an antagonist; stretches of affiability/understanding between the protagonist and the antagonist even if they're working at cross-purposes; a good character being truly, truly tempted by something the antagonist offers them. Looking back at it these days it has its flaws, but it's a book that's always stuck with me and is a frequent reread--I still have the original paperback copy that I first read ages ago.
And Shalindra and Varis and their interaction left such an impression that I always find it surprising that their actual time together comes so late in the book, and is barely more than 100 pages of content. The impact the two of them have on each other feels so strongly drawn in that small amount of space! In spite of their antagonism they have points of similarity and common aspects in their histories/personalities/experiences that they've never found echoed in another person. You understand why Shalindra is uneasily drawn to Varis and finds him easy to talk to about personal and painful things even though she knows better; why Varis, who goes through the entire book manipulating everyone with an ice-cool lack of emotion, feels an unspoken--affinity? affection?--for Shalindra, enough to let her go at the end even though it dooms him. And you understand why the memory of her and that moment can still break through his madness at the end, just a little, and why Shalindra feels somehow bereft once he's gone. It's a short but potent portrayal of two semi-kindred spirits getting pulled into each other's orbit for a little bit before fate and their own actions yank them apart again, and I wish there'd been just a tiny bit more of it.
So, yes, any story that draws on this stuff that I can't stop blabbing about would make me a happy reader. :D
Fandom: Critical Role
Characters: Anna Ripley
What it is and where to find it: A currently ongoing web video series where, as the intro says, a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors get together and play Dungeons and Dragons. Previous episodes can be found at Geek and Sundry here; new episodes stream on Thursdays at 7 PM PST on Geek and Sundry's Twitch channel and end whenever the DM calls the session, and are posted for later viewing on the Geek and Sundry site on Monday.
Official request and further thoughts:
The thing I most want from a fic about Doctor Anna Ripley is MORE. I find her fascinating to a degree totally disproportionate to her amount of screentime, and it's left me itching for something to fill in some of the gaps about her. How the hell did she end up where she is and who she is? Where and how did she get her scientific and mechanical knowledge? How did she get recruited by the Briarwoods? What were her big plans after she escaped from Whitestone? We know she's been selling guns and designs, but why was she gathering Vestiges--to force a confrontation with VM, or just for her own power and protection, or for some other reason? How did her deal with Orthax go down? How did she meet up with Kynan and get him on her side? We know from ep. 69 that she both taught him things and broke his mind in some terrible ways, so exploring that could make for an excellently creepy fic. What about those other names on her gun--who were they, and why did she think they deserved vengeance? What about the two barrels she'd cleared off before VM found her? Or, for a situation with some potential humor, what was *her* interaction with Victor like? :D
I am also down for almost ANY fic scenario that results in more Ripley and Percy interaction. Their back-and-forth during episode 33 was one of the best parts of the episode for me--the moment where Percy drops his disguise and Ripley looks afraid but also can't help smiling with delight? That bit where Percy nonchalantly says "I nearly killed you in Stillbend," and she replies "Hmm, I didn't know that was you," with mild interest but no other reaction? SO GOOD.I kind of hated that in episode 68 events happened so quickly that there wasn't really a good chance for another verbal duel between them. So any kind of story where they get to interact just a little bit more--a missing scene during the castle exploration in 33, or a slight AU where she didn't manage to escape from VM/Whitestone when she did, or one where VM and Ripley's group have to temporarily and uncomfortably team up as Vestige-bearers--would be a treat for me. Or, since they were technically dead during they same amount of time, did they have a moment where they passed each other by in the afterlife and exchanged truly final words? It'd be neat to see what response Ripley'd give to Percy's "I forgive you".
I...also would not be at all averse to some dark Ripley/Percy if you feel like wandering down that dangerous and thorny path! Every interaction they had was so charged and tense with chilly anger (on Percy's side) and smugness and fascination (on Ripley's) that I kept thinking "wow, these two would have some incredible hatesex." We know she tortured him in undescribed ways pre-game, but some kind of encounter set during the current game time, when they're on more of an equal footing, would be excellent as well--it'd probably have to be slightly AU'd at least to fit into the canon, but as in the above paragraph, I am totally down with a canon-divergent AU of some sort to facilitate it.
I received a lovely Percy fic last year, so given the recent events in the canon I suppose it's twistedly appropriate that I ask for fic about his dark mirror/rival this year. :D Gosh, I feel weird and almost embarrassed talking about how fascinating I find Ripley as a character--she only appeared in a couple of episodes! A handful of hours in +200 hours of content! But I just love the idea of a woman in a standard-ish fantasy world who's spent her life working her way into becoming a totally amoral scientist/inventor and whose guiding qualities seem to be curiosity and ruthless pragmatism. Young man you tortured invents a nifty weapon? Gather reports about him and try to figure out how to create one of your own. Blow your arm off in the process? Build yourself a new one. Same young man casts out his demon? Make a deal with it yourself. She has absolutely zero interest in the concerns of those around her, whether it's her employers' necromantic shenanigans or DRAGONS EVERYWHERE; she just wants to put her mind to something interesting, whether that's work-for-hire or her own research pursuits. I love that she dresses like a sensible 19th century highwayman. I love that she's smart and successful enough to make it to her mid-forties (cool female villains who are past the age of thirty, yesss) without being taken out by an experiment gone wrong or someone she'd crossed.
And since Percy is one of my faves, I suppose it only makes sense that Ripley got her claw-hand into my brain as well, as their characters have so many of the same hooks: the cleverness, the trickiness, the overconfidence, the need to keep pushing and pushing at the boundaries of their knowledge and what they can create--with the difference being that while Percy still has a grip on morality (skewed though his might be at times) and a wariness/guilt over how what he creates will affect the world, Ripley has neither. That similarity and difference, and the fact that they both recognize it and let it inform their reactions to each other is such catnip for me. I love that Percy constantly criticizes Ripley as being dull as tasteless, yet also says she's the one person he really, truly fears; I love that Ripley recognizes how Percy's guilt over what he's done and created is one of his most vulnerable points, and how absolutely crucial he is to VM's successes (their 'precious white-haired boy', as she called him).
And I love her unsettling fascination with Percy and his work--that he interests her so much that while she's sensible enough to be unsettled when he confronts her in Whitestone, she's also so pleased to see him that she can't help but smile and laugh in delight. She overheard everything he said did for WEEKS with that spell on that gun of hers. CREEPY. AWESOME. (Does that mean she overheard at least a part of things in the Raven Queen's temple? Aaaaaaah!)
Fandom: Steak to the Heart
Characters: Trevor, Olive
What it is and where to find it: A two-minute senior project animated short for the DigiPen Institute of Technology, on Youtube here. You can see some art, poses, concept sketching, etc. here on the tumblr of one of the animators.
Official request and further thoughts:
I don't have very specific requests in mind here--just more of Trevor and Olive and fun paranormal fluff with a cozy atmosphere. With the material we get in the short there's plenty of unexplored setup and followup to consider that could turn into a cute story. How did these two meet? Was it on their own? If so, who did the asking out? Did friends set them up? (What are their friends like?) Did they hook up through a dating service/website? (What are *those* like in this world, if it has them?) Where do they go and what do they do after they leave the restaurant? What's their second date like? In one piece of concept art we see Trevor with a guitar--would he try to write a song for Olive? Would she howl along?
It could also be fun to explore the setting in world-building way! The restaurant is clearly okay with werewolf and vampire patrons, so is this some special restaurant for non-humans, or do they live in a world/land with no humans, or do humans and non-humans live together? Olive is a humanoid wolf in this, but is that her form all the time, or does she go normal woman --> wolf-woman --> wolf --> normal again? What kind of traditional strengths and weaknesses (sunlight, silver, garlic, aconite, mirrors, etc.) do Trevor and Olive have, and how does that effect their dating life?
This is my repeat request this year! Because I still love the source, of course, and because my other requests are for potentially lengthy and dark-ish canons while this is a just a quick little piece of supernatural sweetness.
What I said about it last year was:
"It's just such a sweet snippet of story, with so much creativity in the characters and their movements and designs. I loved Trevor's shyness and freckles and sneakers and misbehaving coat-wings, I loved Olive's eagerness and her jewelry and her cute purple knee socks and her over-excited tail, and I loved how much they clearly liked each other and wanted to make a good impression. Any fic that leaves me with the same fluffy feeling as the source will be a win in my book."
That all still holds true! Again, I feel weird talking about how much I love this thing since it's just about two minutes of content, but I can't help it. On days when I feel down or blah about life I often find myself punching up this short on Youtube so I can watch it for the thousandth time and smile sappily at these two awkward darlings and their fidgets and shuffling and desperate attempts to look good for each other, culminating in that sweet moment where they can let the polite masks drop and just start happily gnawing on their steaks, and then swan out arm in arm into the night leaving a somewhat bloodstained tablecloth behind them. It's cute and silly and it just does my heart so much good.
Thank you again, dear writer, and I hope you have a lovely holiday season!
